What are the features of Australian newspaper articles in the context of death and dying from 2015 to 2020? A Qualitative Content Analysis
Date
2021
Authors
Rundle, Emma
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Abstract
Although death is an inevitable process, thinking or talking about death and dying can be uncomfortable, daunting and confronting for people. There are very few studies that have investigated the circumstances of how the newspaper media portrays when and how death is discussed. The newspaper media both reflect and influence what and how topics are talked about between individuals. A qualitative content analysis was conducted to determine how the Australian newspaper media portray conversations about death and dying. Newspaper articles regarding conversations about death, dying, and the end of life, from the years 2015 to 2020 were analysed in three largely circulated Australian newspapers (The Age, The Australian and the Herald Sun). These dates were chosen as 2017 was the year that the Assisted Dying Act first passed through Victorian parliament. This allowed for talk of death to be analysed before, during, and after that event. The theoretical lens of “Terror Management Theory” and Endler and Parker’s theory of coping (1994) informed the analysis to better understand the ways in which people discuss death and the prospect of their own and others’ mortality. Seventeen categories were found from the data which were generated from sixty-nine subcodes. This research contributes to our understanding about who, where and how death and dying are portrayed, and what psychological mechanisms might be advertently and inadvertently encouraged and discouraged, through death’s portrayal in the media.
School/Discipline
School of Psychology
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Thesis (B.PsychSc(Hons)) -- University of Adelaide, School of Psychology, 2021
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